jch wrote:
> _____
> Hello All,
>
> I have been reading about divided developers for film. Never tried it;
> looks promising though! Do any of you in this group have any experience
> with this approach? The reason for my interest is the fact that i live
> in the country and that my house disposes of waste water via a septic
> tank system. Hence, i want to minimise the amounts of photographic
> chemicals entering the tank in case they kill the microbes.
>
> Below is a divided developer formula; a variant on D-76 where BATH A and
> B can be kept for a long time:
> A BATH
> Water at 125F 3 cups
> Metol 1/2 tsp
> Sodium sulfite 2 TBL
> Hydroquinone 2 tsp
> Potassium bromide 1/8 tsp
> Cold water to make 1 quart
>
> B BATH
> Water at 80-100F 3 cups
> Sodium sulfite 2 TBL
> Borax 2 TBL
> Cold water to make 1 quart
>
> Process 2-4 minutes in A BATH, and the same time in B BATH, both at 68F.
> Agitate for 15 sec initially, and for about 5 seconds every half
> minute. Stop bath is not recommended after B BATH, a quick 1 min rinse
> in water is enough. Fix the film in the usual manner.
>
> A BATH will last indefinitely, and B BATH can be used for 20-30 rolls of
> film before any change in contrast or density should be noticed.
>
> There is also a phenidone version of this formula to obtain increased
> film speed.
>
I used several divided developers in the past for 4147 Plus-X and 4164
Tri-X. I used D-23 or D-25 for Bath 1 and a solution of 2% Sodium
MetaBorate
and 2% Sodium Sulfite for Bath 2. I used up to 7 minutes in bath 1 and 3
minutes in bath 2.
The good part was the measured film speed went up one stop.
The bad part is that it worked the opposite of what people said. They said
it would lower the highlight contrast while maintaining the contrast
elsewhere. What I got was that it lowered the shadow contrast (even though
it increased the film speed). The only way to control the highlight
contrast
was to reduce the time in bath 1, and that lowered the contrast
everywhere.
When I switched films to the TMax series, it was even worse because all
the
sulfite made the sharpness very mushy. So I gave it up entirely.
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